Fernando Alonso has revealed the extent of the difficulties he has faced this year with Aston Martin F1. The two-time world champion is annoyed that he suffered a shoulder injury because of his car and is jealous of the drivers of other teams.
“It depends a little on the car you had” Alonso said. “If you had a McLaren, a Ferrari or a Mercedes, it’s a lot less difficult because the car doesn’t jump, the car is fast. And if you have our car, you hurt your shoulder and you have a shoulder injured during six races.”
The Brazilian Grand Prix and the Interlagos bumps were a difficult moment for Alonso, which aggravated his injury, with which he had to deal: “You take a painkiller and you go back to it. And it has nothing to do with age. When I’m not feeling well physically, people immediately say ‘he’s 43’.”
“But another time the Parc Fermé was like The Walking Dead and I was fine, I was much fitter than them. So it’s a bit of a matter of small injuries, especially if the car doesn’t allow you don’t sit quietly in your seat.”
Sometimes annoyed with his team, the Spaniard does not lack confidence… in himself: “I don’t need more confidence. I know that when I have a normal car I will be as high as possible. We have known for a few months what we did wrong this year.”
“We now need to apply these lessons to next year’s car. But 2026 remains the big news for many teams, except McLaren and Ferrari, who have superior cars. It will be difficult to close these gaps for everyone.”
“I think we have few options for 2025. We have to think a little further. Even today, Williams was much superior to us, Haas was in another category, Alpine in another category. RB should also have been ahead of us so we were only better than the Saubers.
If Alonso has so much confidence in himself, it’s because he always feels in good shape and always motivated: “I always give my best, even in these last races where we didn’t have big goals at the end.”
“It seems that, from the outside, people are still waiting for me to get older, but that day is not coming yet. When I start from 14th place, I think I will finish in the points. When I start eighth , I think I will end up on the podium, I’m still hungry.”
However, the 24 races of the season have left their mark on the Spanish driver’s form, and he admits that he sometimes would have liked to spend more time at home as the months went by: “We’ve all learned lessons this year about how to travel.”
“Like this hat-trick of races in Las Vegas, Qatar and Abu Dhabi, from one place to another, and then an event in Saudi Arabia between races. Next year I will try to go home, even if it’s for 48 or 72 hours So, small adjustments to arrive in better shape next year.”
Asked about the McLaren F1 constructors’ title, Alonso is pleased to have been at the origin of the arrival of Andrea Stella, the director of the English team, in Woking: “I’m a very good friend of Andrea. You know, in a way, I brought him to McLaren when I joined McLaren.”
“So I told him before the race that what Abu Dhabi took from us in 2010, I hoped he would give something back, and that’s what happened. I’m happy for him , he deserved it. He’s a very intelligent man and like I said, McLaren is an example for a lot of things now.
Alonso reveals he is still close to the McLaren CEO, and he laughs that he played a role in McLaren’s title by convincing Stella to join the team almost a decade ago: “Yes. I should take part of Andrea’s bonus. And Zak’s!”
“Zak is also a really good friend of mine. We’re going to spend a few days together in the next few weeks having fun at a track. We rented a track, actually. So you know, I’m a good friend of Zak.”
